today's news in the week's top stories in r.t.d. u.s. plays into israel over its plans to build three thousand more settler homes immediately after the palestinians u.s. status is upgraded. egypt is divided as tens of thousands of tens of thousands rallied to both support and oppose president morsi with a referendum on a controversial new constitution set for two weeks time. and the world's top whistle blower promises more sensational revelations next year we talked to during the sonship in an exclusive interview.

with the happy company i'm andrew farmer now the u.s. is trying to steer israel and the palestinians back to the negotiating table but so far to no avail washington has criticised israel's approval of three thousand more settler homes in disputed territories the move came immediately after the un voted to upgrade palestine to observer state status despite america's opposition artie's poorest leader looks now at how the vote affects the situation in the middle east. it might have been a foregone conclusion but that didn't dampen the jubilation on the streets of palestine overwhelming support for upgraded palestinian state has to a nonmember observer state in the un one hundred thirty eight voting in favor nine against looking at forty one abstentions it's an important political and legal victory to hold israel accountable in a practical way on its violations the national law and its violations of the rights of the palestinian peace. especially on the expansion of illegal settlements

palestinians can now apply to join the international criminal court and the global organizations giving them better bargaining chips in dealing with israel but it came at a price within hours tel aviv a nonstop is building three thousand more homes in the west bank a sure sign that the situation on the ground won't change overnight does it's not a step forward it's a step aside or even you know a step. further let's really believe the international community gives to this violation the us was also quick to cost account of the palestinian party the unfortunate and counterproductive resolution at the united nations general assembly that just passed today's grand pronouncements will soon fade and the palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed but washington's unflinching support for tel aviv has separated from some

of its longtime allies in the un more and more countries are turning their back on decades of negotiations that have led nowhere what has changed has been the continual failure of the us controlled so-called peace process to lead to any kind of end to occupation and what i think was the catalyst here is that political pressure on other matters and on the palestinian authority from their own population from their own people who were saying you know what we've had twenty one years of failed diplomacy we're not looking for twenty two we want something different and that's something means a real shift in policy first and foremost the consensus on the international stage is that israel needs to stop building settlements deemed illegal by the un certain to be international community you know is a horse to start. provocation which heroes of course. saw

god. it was little more than a year ago that palestinian president mahmoud abbas came to the un in a bid for statehood since then tel aviv and washington's approach to the middle east conflict has gained them an ever shrinking minority of supporters the irony is that the bid was passed in the watcher's of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his rightwing foreign minister avigdor lieberman it was last year that lieberman boasted in the united nations that the moral majority of western states was with israel it now turns out he was wrong and whether israel wants it or not it's increasingly clear that something needs to give policy r.t. tel aviv. where u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton says the palestinians need to be persuaded talks are the only way forward but human rights activist steve hein believes settlement expansion is not the right path towards dialogue and peace. i say it's very

important when the u.s. calls these certain expansions illegal when they call them counterproductive we should be using the word illegal because that's very clearly what this act is a further three thousand homes to be built illegally occupied palestinian territory and this is a obstacle to peace if we're serious about a two state solution and if we're serious about moving towards that. there's no way that this assessment expansion can be seen as the any way a move towards getting back on the table and moving towards the peace talks that both sides so desperately need in the latest upsurge in violence there in gaza we've seen documented proof that israel launched indiscriminate attacks they failed to distinguish between combatant and civilian in the same way that hamas rocket attacks very clearly aimed at civilians which is a violation of international humanitarian law in the sense that target civilian.

indiscriminate nature of their arsenal only by building on international consensus that we've got that israel and even the united states are further away from can we hope to move towards a long lasting peace. tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of egypt this week in rival rallies both for and against president morsi and an islamist backed draft constitution morsi has set the date for a national referendum on the charter for two weeks time and the harsh criticism from opponents who claim the draft undermines basic democratic freedoms artie's tom barton brings us this report now from cairo. unrest returns to the streets after the revolution that toppled hosni mubarak after the election that brought in mohamed morsi egypt is in turmoil once again these round the clock protests have been going on for over a week now it resembles early two thousand and eleven when hosni mubarak was removed from power but that was. really two years ago shouldn't the revolution have

ended by now the mood on top risk where became defiant again after last week's to creep by president morsi meaning his decisions would face new legal challenge we had the revolution to get rid of a tyrant a dictator. and we in in order to that we made elections and with the revolution and with actions to choose someone to the present us and turned out that this guy is also a tyrant himself yet however morsi claims his new powers are only temporary you know any of that the because it will in the world him. he will tell you it is a temporary thing if his full emergency pull does the serious the same thing sift usable on the president that will block and we stayed under emergency rule for seventy years opponents say egypt's new constitution is to islamist and set the country on the road to religious dictatorship but some sections of society are keen to show their support for morsi and the scorn for judges who have blocked the

constitution and i'm here to support the president morsi for them so patient might it be for them is open for them to the constitutional court yeah or most of us knows that since it is the morsi is that they got elected by the people when it was at the fight for his failure the rifts in society are undeniable and perhaps more even than or for tarion ism to favor is that chaos will tear apart any games made by the revolution this is something new in egypt that's why it's it's more sitting in a way where you find that people are facing each other in the streets in the ministrations and facing that type of violence from islamic groups egypt's president its government its courts its very constitution and now matters of heated debate one of the few things most of gyptian still seem to agree on after the long night of mubarak a new day. is proving it. tom bottom party. while president morsi has called an

order to take part in the referendum and says the constitution is going in the right direction gentleness while it scanned it disagrees that saying more sees only a promise is to give back sweeping powers after the constitution is in place are false the fact of the matter is that everything is going in the opposite direction of what the revolution is called for the constituent assembly itself is a reflection of how unwilling to share power the muslim brotherhood are and along with mohamed morsi. he says that he will give back powers as soon as a parliament is a is elected but he's not allowing you gyptian to share in writing the constitution so this to me seems like a false promise about giving back power because the one thing he can do is allow dipshits to write their own constitution and share power and he's not doing that the judiciary have been a tool for the mubarak regime but if we come to think of it when people protested

mubarak they were protesting police brutality and we see that morsi is giving promises to the police that they will act with impunity and does not want to bring anyone to justice for the crimes they've done not coming up shortly ballot box drama in kuwait as the opposition boycotts the vote polls are paid by the opposition no show campaign saying the new parliament is lacking political pop eater it just a missing. day at the british media lord leveson publishes his damning report and calls for tighter pressure regulations in the cab. of the world's most notorious whistleblower songes promising and you sensational explosion next year equal to the release of thousands of secret american diplomatic cables two years ago in an exclusive interview with r.t. the wiki leaks also claims the us is becoming a totalitarian state with the help of social media. the problem is that all the time everyone nearly everything they do on the internet is permanently recorded

every web search to know what you were thinking one year two days three months ago and you don't know but google knows it remembers the national security agency intercepts requests that flowed over us border it knows will be. a national security agency whistleblower who was the research head of the national security agency's signals intelligence division describes this as turning key totalitarianism that all the infrastructure has been built for absolute totalitarianism it's just a matter of turning the key and actually the case has already been turned a little bit and it is now affecting people who are targeted for us drone strikes organizations like wiki leaks. national security reporters who are having their sources investigated is already partly turned and the question is would we would go all the way.

on a more personal note songe dismissed reports his health is deteriorating and you can see more from the world's top whistleblower in our full interview at any time also on our website at r.t. doc. he waits parliamentary poll has been hit by a boy caught with opposition claiming a record low turnout the wealthy gulf state has seen months of anti-government protests and corruption allegations they really want a case been accused of amending voting rules to influence the ballot lisa catherine off as this report. polls are closed doors in but the battle over kuwait's political future has only just begun as expected the new parliament is largely consisting of folks who are considered to be closely allied with the ruling power but that is because the opposition didn't front any candidates in a boycott of the vote they've even questioned the outcome before the last ballot

was cast voter turnout varied widely from polling place to polling place but with a very low numbers at some locations the legitimacy of the results are certainly bound to be questioned now the crisis was sparked after the islamist dominated parliament it was dismissed over a row with the ruling power of the situation was then brought to a boiling point after the emir issued a surprise decree changing the country's complicated voting laws critics allege that it was a move in order to force a more compliant parliament which had sparked massive street battles as well now the political rift is only likely to deepen the question is whether the opposition is now going to take their fight to the streets and whether the monarchy will respond with a heavy hand force what happens here has implications far beyond kuwait's borders as an opec member any sort of unrest is bound to affect oil markets the country is also a hub for the pentagon's ground forces with thousands of combat troops stationed here as a military counterweight to iran now the gulf monarchies have been struggling to

fend off possible instability from the arab spring with varying degrees of success kuwait has largely seen as the most tolerant of the countries in this region but the worry is of course that the trend could be reversed recent months have seen as fleeting clashes between a position groups and security forces who have used tear gas stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse crowds of political gatherings of more than twenty people have been banned and activists are complaining of the clampdown against sent authorities and did allow thousands of protesters to gather for a peaceful rally on friday but the worry is. as that the next few weeks are bound to test the limits of the government's tolerance as well as the self control displayed by the opposition what happens here in kuwait could very well write the next chapter of the arab spring this account for no r.t. kuwait's well the opposition says the boycott of the votes and mass protests have taken away popular political legitimacy from the next parliament analyst eric

draitser says the u.s. backed gulf monarchies needs to balance its own interests with the influence of the west the most important element in all of this is whether or not the opposition is able to stand up against this family the ruling class the ruling class in kuwait and most importantly standing against us imperialism the way in and of itself is not terribly important but when seen in the context of the g.c.c. and seen as one of the most reliable u.s. allies particularly juxtaposed against what is happening in bahrain then we understand that the united states in the western powers cannot allow the saw family to fall you have to see that kuwait is a launching point in a possible war against iran so all of these taken together really shows that the united states has both political geo political and then of course social reasons why they want to maintain the status quo. in other news russian gas could soon be flown directly to the u.k. energy giants b.p. and gazprom are talking business as britain seeks to bolster its energy security

the north stream pipeline could be extended to the u.k. by twenty six the with a deal set to be signed in the middle of next year right now and the pipeline runs from russia to germany under the baltic sea but it would be to be extended six hundred miles to reach britain the project appeals to london because it offers diversifying gas supplies that are mostly coming from the middle east. will be plenty more stories on our website including flying into trouble if washington pushes its drone program over the us a spate of crashes and near misses civilian authorities are questioning their safety find out more at r.t. dot com plus also online. news agencies are left red in the face after publishing a scientifically floor diagram they claim as proof of iran's nuclear bomb ambitions which critics say could have been produced by any signs james. now that you can use papers accused of wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent people

britain is now reviewing press freedom the leveson report based on an inquiry triggered by revelations of tired lloyd phone hacking is calling for a legally back to press regulator and as artie's party boy reports the proposal has left the country's top politicians deeply embarrassed. revelations that the british press and gauged in phone hacking sparked a wave of public revulsion and kicked off one of the biggest scandals the u.k. has. at times that threatened to engulf not just streets. but downing street as well as the allegations went all the way to the heart the british government to douse the flames number ten ordered the creation of the leveson inquiry in order to investigate the claims and now two years in the making after a chorus line of celebrity witnesses and millions in taxpayers' money the leveson report damning about the press and heavily critical of both the police and the

government for what it says was their cozy relationship with the media cameron has been shown with hunt to have been actually batting for the murdoch empire as part of all of this so you know i think there needs to be a bit more of a focus on the failures of the police. to do anything about these criminal acts lord leveson his recommendation is behind standards of self-regulation by the press in forced by legislation and that's what critics fear could stifle the already declining newspaper industry and deal a huge blow to the freedom of the press in the u.k. is there any way in which you can be a little bit censored or a little bit monitored and most people say no with britain now in the midst of a post leveson going over is the country's two top politicians who are likely to be the most embarrassed david cameron might be suffering from some uncomfortable flashbacks back in october the prime minister promised to support the leveson

recommendations as long as they went bonkers and cut to last week i have some serious concerns and misgivings on this recommendation they break into issues of principle practicality but david cameron's change of heart well. guarding the inquiry's findings would be causing him half the headache that nick clegg might be nursing at the moment the liberal democrat deputy prime minister used to talk about liberal democracy a labor previous cessna's will be remembered as the government who took your freedoms away we want to be remembered as the ones who gave them but we're not any more of us here he is after the leveson published their report i have always said that i would support lord justice leveson reforms providing they are proportionate and workable and i will come on to why i believe that is the case as far as the report's corporate core proposal is concerned namely a tougher system of so for

a glacial supported by new independent checks recognised in law recent polls suggest that over two thirds of britons have little or no faith in the newspaper industry anymore and with revelations about the strong links between the police the politicians and the media it's not only trust in fleet street that when dealing i think. obviously we've been very worried about this pressure sometimes i think it's always going on but we should keep an eye on it and be aware of it. with opinions raging for and against new legislation it's turning into a no win situation for those in power by questioning the results of the inquiry david cameron looked to his critics like he abandoned the victims of media intrusion for some good press which is what got the government in trouble in the first place polly boy k r t london. well let's take

a look at some other news making headlines this hour taliban suicide bombers like the u.s. military base in the city of jalalabad in eastern afghanistan afghan intelligence officials say there were as many as seven militants explosions went off outside the gate and a gun battle ensued nato officials afghan guards. was killed and several foreign troops injured. north korea says it will try to launch a long range rocket later this month after a previous attempt failed the move will likely further strain relations with washington and neighboring south korea the u.s. has previously suspended food aid to the state after pyongyang went ahead with a rocket test in april so has meanwhile nearly tripled its own ballistic missile range after a recent deal with the u.s. . rebels in congo have ended their occupation of a strategic city of goma after an agreement was brokered with the government the plan paves the way for a u.n. peacekeeping contingent and the local army to move in less than two weeks after the

rebels took control the militants say they seek to become part of the official army but many believe the group are sponsored by rwanda in its effort to gain influence in the mineral rich region. testers have police in mexico as the country's new president on a pen and yet though we're sworn in several thousand demonstrators threw molotov cocktails and rocks at security forces in a bid to the ceremony police responded with tear gas to disperse the crowd injuring around twenty people the protesters are unhappy that yetis party have returned to power after a twelve year absence from office a new president says the party has evolved after opponents criticised it for being authoritarian and corrupt. athens breathed a sigh of relief this week as german lawmakers supported trimming greece's overwhelming debt aside from releasing more cash the deal slashes interest rates delays payments and even pushes back or stereotyped deadlines but as artie's peeta

all of the reports those footing the bill aren't all that happy to pay up. germany will be giving more financial aid towards greece we saw m.p.'s voting with four hundred seventy three saying yes to this a package one hundred saying no and eleven abstentions now what this does mean no and it's been talked about throughout the week is in next year alone it could cost germany over seven hundred million euros but we are seeing the politicians at least giving their support financial support towards greece but that support isn't being particularly backed up by some of the electorate here people on the streets of germany suggesting that perhaps greece should be left to its own devices. that is enough because we won't see this money ever again. right at some point it should be stopped it's high time they were capable of helping themselves we're ok for now but someday we could also get a program there's arlen specter north like no doubt to vice is all used to be an

english we've already given at least so much more on the issues started already a lot going on on the show i was. in there's nothing more it is. well they were people speaking just outside of the reichstag but that seems to be reflected across the country a recent poll taken by a german television station says that forty six percent of germans want to see greece left to default left up to its own devices however the politicians in here in germany have voted through this next round of financial aid but it wasn't smooth sailing we saw a very confident looking angle or merkel posting her vote but that belies some rumblings of revolt within her own party and own coalition the worst people saying that no no we are just going to rubber stamp any things put before us you've got to prove that this is in the best interests of germany of course all of this coming around as we enter what will be the campaigning season ahead of a general election here in germany next year so it does seem that the german

politicians at least are on the side of angela merkel and trying to give more financial aid to greece now that is the same an increasing amount of the electorate who seem to be suggesting they should be cut loose. after gaining verbal indorsements from western nations the syrian opposition has begun receiving financial backing the french government allocating one and a half million dollars in a t.v. coalition france only became the first question power to officially recognize the alliance as the cell official representatives of the syrian people russia was among the critics of the financial donations saying that supporting a movement to overthrow an existing government is unacceptable under international law professor paul sheldon foot from the california state university says that paris is only to sharing short term financial goals. science major interest would be to continue with sorenson your moments throughout the world. but it i don't

think it really cured serve justice though didn't hear in the case of libya all they were closed tomorrow i was going to operate they didn't really care who took over afterwards the. problem or thing the so-called syrian opposition knows that they are not united the only thing unites that he would like to remove the current government. come from a very wide range of political. religious viewpoints. viewpoint to think origins. they're never going to succeed in syria they were not be able to come together and they would be no road to fighting to determine who will dominate all the other groups that are coming up russian cossacks reenact their historic march towards perished during the the polio nic was r.t. special report is after the break.

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